True, lasting happiness depends on what you empty yourself of

The staple of the American breakfast table is the box of cereal, whether it be full of sugar or full of fiber. For a child the box was inconsequential. Sometimes the cereal inside the box didn't matter, either. What mattered was the prize inside the box. Many a morning was spent digging to the bottom of the box to be the one who got the prize.

Too often many of us treat our own happiness like that cereal box. "I'll be happy when I get that promotion." "I'll be happy when I finally meet the right guy." "I'll finally be happy when I get a bigger house, a faster car and a greener yard." "I'll be happy when the prize in the bottom the box is resting atop my bowl of cereal."

The funny thing about real happiness is that it is not conditional. True, happiness that lasts beyond the lows and highs of life is not based on meeting certain criteria. Perhaps one of the most recognized sections of the New Testament is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount found in the gospel of Matthew. In this mountainside conversation, he drew all who would listen into some understandings of what it means to live counterculturally, leaving the crowd that afternoon astonished at his own authority.

He began the conversation with one word: blessed. To be blessed is to be happy. With the word, happy are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and on and on.

The happiness that Jesus spoke of was different from the world's interpretation of not only what happiness looks like but what contributes to it. For the world, happiness is never knowing pain, never experiencing struggle, never submitting to defeat. Happiness, by the world's view, is a fixed smile that rivals any Botox injection. Happiness, by the world's view, is one that is based on success, possessions, reputation and the envy of others.

Jesus quietly reminds all who truly desire happiness that those things will not last. Rust will destroy, moths will devour. True, enduring, lasting happiness is not found on what you fill your life with but what you empty yourself of. It is getting self out of the way to let God fill the space. Risk the radical life. Step out of the way and watch God do something amazing.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.